1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network configuring apparatus employing a physical wiring switch, and more particularly, to a network configuring apparatus that can enhance a flexibility in establishing a network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, more and more companies have been adopting a business style of outsourcing an operation management of their corporate information system to a data center provider, to save a cost for information technology (IT)-related facility.
A need from a user includes an establishment of a system in response to a change of a market, such as a system for dealing with an event that happens on a short-term basis or a load occurring on a periodic basis and a system that would be needed in the future for which it is difficult to predict. The data center provider prepares a variety of IT resources and provides a service with which the user can use the IT resources, to meet various needs from the user.
When providing the service, the data center provider divides the IT resources in compliance with an access condition of each user, a usage time of each user, a usage season of each user, etc., to meet a request from the user for using the IT resources.
To realize such services, it is extremely important to operate the IT resources efficiently, and to reduce an operation cost effectively. For that purpose, a method of dynamically changing an allocation of resources to a user in response to a load, when the load of the user is changed in a data center, has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-124976).
In addition, in an optical-electrical convergence network that is configured with an optical core network and an electrical sub-network, a method of performing a setting or a releasing of an optimum optical-path in response to a traffic amount between the electrical sub-networks in an automatic manner has been proposed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-258862).
However, with the above conventional technologies, it is difficult to enhance a flexibility in configuring a network system. For instance, in the conventional technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-124976, a network switch is connected to each of the IT resources, and a reduction or a reinforcement of the IT resources is performed by controlling the network switch. However, the IT resources cannot be reinforced more than the number of ports of the network switch, and as a result, a size of a system depends on a capacity of a pre-installed network switch.
Therefore, when it is predicted that there would be a necessity to expand the size of the system in the future, it is required to estimate the size of the system that would be necessary in the future from the time of introducing the system, and to use a network switch that can cover the estimated size of the system, which results in an increase of a cost for an initial installation of the network switch.
In the conventional technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-258862, when a usage rate of an optical path on the optical core network is over a predetermined value, the optical path is additionally set to suppress an occurrence of a congestion, and when the usage rate of the optical path is below a predetermined value so that there is a slim chance of the occurrence of the congestion, the optical path is released. However, the technology is not helpful for a new addition of an IT equipment or an easy change of a network topology.